Gov. DeSantis approves language allowing recurring funding for private Jewish school security

Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a measure allowing lawmakers to make security funding for private Jewish day schools a recurring part of the state budget.

The legislation (HB 1109) will direct the Florida Department of Education to establish a regular funding model for guards, cameras, fencing, impact windows, perimeter lighting and related security costs at Jewish schools.

On its own, the bill establishes no monetary commitment.

Sarasota Republican Joe Gruters, the measure’s sponsor in the Senate, noted this past Session that there has been a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents since the Oct. 7 attack on western Israel by Palestinian Hamas terrorists.

He also said that a doubling in Jewish day school enrollment over the past five years necessitates a more reliable funding source.

“This is something both chambers unanimously supported as recently as the Special Session in November,” Gruters said, referring to a $25 million earmark approved that month to pay for added safeguards at 134 Jewish day schools in the state.

DeSantis also set aside a separate $20 million pot in December to be split evenly between Jewish day schools and four Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

The bill’s passage in the Senate was far less divisive than in the House, where six Democratic lawmakers voted “no” after sponsor Randy Fine, a Palm Bay Republican, referred to comments Gainesville Democratic Rep. Yvonne Hinson made about the bill as “garbage.”

Hinson, who also challenged the bill at a committee stop in January, incorrectly asserted that HB 1109 “gives $50 million” to Jewish schools while no state funding is given to public school security.

“I need to call attention to that,” she said. “Fifty million dollars (for) 100 private schools. School safety for all 67 counties? Not one dollar.”

Fine, who is Jewish, lambasted Hinson for misrepresenting his legislation. According to a House staff analysis of the bill and statewide school expenditures, the Legislature has given $1.2 billion to public school districts since 2018 to improve security provisions on campuses and hundreds of millions more for school hardening.

Hinson and Reps. LaVon Bracy Davis, Ashley Gantt, Patricia Hawkins-Williams, Michele Rayner and Felicia Robinson voted against the measure. Both Bracy Davis and Hawkins-Williams had previously voted “yes” on the bill in committee.

Robinson later told Florida Politics she voted “no” not because she opposes the bill’s aims, but due to the contempt Fine showed Hinson, the chamber’s oldest Democratic member.

“For Rep. Fine to stand there on the floor and call (her) garbage, that was triggering. And it wasn’t addressed,” she said. “Everybody was going to vote up on the bill, for the most part. It wasn’t a bad bill. But this was about disrespect. It happens quite often, and it gets to be emotional.”